Persimmons
by CrazyForCatz
Summary: Fitz always loves to remind her that her name resembles that of his favorite fruit. Five snippets of Leo and Jemma's relationship as told through experiences with persimmons;
1. Chapter 1

**So I wrote this story back in December as a Christmas present for my friend. There are five chapters, and I think I'll update every Thursday until it's over... as long as there are at least a handful of reviews ;) **

**Some of this may deviate a bit from what has become canon considering that I wrote it after, oh, the 10th episode of the season? So ninety percent of everything important hadn't even happened yet, but my friend insisted that I post it after the events of the last episode. Just a little fluff and fun to balance out the overwhelming feels that I won't delve into because spoilers haha.**

**Oh and also I wrote this in the present tense (do not ask I have absolutely no idea why... ) and so because I don't usually write in anything other than the past tense it may switch tenses. In my proofreading I haven't noticed but I wouldn't put it past me to miss it so yeah... don't mind that.**

**Otherwise I hope you enjoy :) please Review if you enjoy it and want to see more (or if you want to give me any constructive criticism). Reviews are love. **

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It's in Professor Hall's class on his first day at the academy. Fitz would later argue that the reason he sat next to Jemma, who was then a stranger, was merely because the other seats were taken, he'd never admit (to her) that at least forty percent of the reason was how beautiful she looked.

Light brown, slightly curly hair pulled into a ponytail, collared white shirt with a blue sweater pulled over it. She had a notebook open in front of her and was already penning something out carefully, brown eyes bright with excitement. To most, she looked plain and utterly unnoticeable. To Fitz, she stuck out as one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever seen.

He awkwardly took the seat next to her, instantly feeling as though his actions were idiotic. This girl would probably be annoyed by him sitting next to her. Why, _why_ had he done this? He was making up his mind to move in the back next to the man who was doodling on his palm when she turned to him with a smile and held out her hand.

"Hello, I'm Jemma. Jemma Simmons." she had a British accent.

He took her hand, "I-I'm Fitz, or… I mean…" he was so flustered that he could hardly get the words out, "my name-I'm actually Leopold, but… but most people call me Fitz."

Jemma looked as though she was tempted to laugh at his stammering, but was polite enough not to, "So you prefer to be known mainly by your surname then?"

"So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Leopold." because of her encouraging smile he was slightly more confident in himself.

She laughs, "I suppose, if you don't like it."

"I don't at all. I can't explain why, just ever since I was a wee lad I've resented it." he explains.

"Well all the same, it's nice to meet you, Fitz."

"Same to you, Jemma"

It's then that he notices that he had held onto her hand during their whole conversation, which means it's been a good two minutes. Embarrassed, he quickly withdraws it with a quietly muttered "sorry." He can feel the heat rising to his face, turning it an unflattering beet red and curses his stupidity and inability to pay attention..

"Oh, no it's quite all right. Don't worry about it." she smiles at him once more.

He grins apologetically, still feeling mortified about it (he _knows_ that years later he'll lie awake thinking about how embarrassing this was). Trying to steer her mind, as well as his, away from it he speaks, "So your last name is Simmons? As in _per_simmons?"

She rolls her eyes, a sign that she'd probably gotten this question a lot, "Yes, yes, if you add one more syllable my last name could be that of a fruit. A fruit I've never actually had despite the name similarity, but a fruit nonetheless."

"You've never had a persimmon?" he asks incredulously, realizing after he says it that persimmons aren't actually something commonly eaten unless you live near a place that grows them. The only reason he'd ever had it was because his father had lived for some time in he Southern United States and had become quite partial to them. "Well, I'll have to fix that for you."

"Will you now?" Jemma raises an eyebrow, she opens her mouth to say something else, but at that moment Dr. Hall walks in and class begins.

The next day he's grinning as they walk to the canteen for lunch. After finding out that they had other classes together besides just Dr. Hall's, they had become unofficial besties. They knew no one else and were both socially awkward enough that they didn't necessarily _want _to know anyone else so after that first meeting they stuck together.

Jemma looks at him suspiciously as she sets her tray down and sits, "Why are you smiling like that?"

"Oh, no reason. I just brought you a little surprise." he then pulls out two small, round, orange fruits from his bag. Two persimmons.

"So you weren't kidding when you said you'd fix the fact that I'd never had a persimmon." she chuckles, looking somewhat surprised, "Usually when people have said things like that to me they're joking, or they forget."

He wags a reproving finger at her, "No one can forget something as pivotal as a persimmons." he says seriously.

They both eat their persimmons while they chat about science. Jemma finds out that she really likes persimmons. Fitz just laughs and says that he knew she would. After that they went from unofficial best friends to official best friends.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello all, thank you so much for following and favoriting and reviewing, it really makes my day to see someone enjoys the story! Sorry for not replying to those of you who have reviewed, my computer has been on the fritz (it'll honestly be a miracle if this chapter uploads without a hitch) but thank you so so much for expressing your feelings towards the story! **

**This chapter is a bit shorter, sorry about that, but I hope you still enjoy!**

**Oh and I forgot to add in the first chapter that sadly, I do not own any of these characters **

**Happy reading :) remember that reviews are love!**

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A few years later they've graduated from the academy three years earlier than they were supposed to, both at the top of their classes. For a year and a half after graduation they work side-by-side in a SHIELD lab somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Every so often they apply for field jobs, but for awhile no one takes them up on it, so they stay in the lab day in and day out.

Then Agent Coulson requests for them to be on his team. Jemma almost bursts with excitement, "Oh, Fitz. It's the most perfect opportunity for us to see the world! We'd be fools to pass this one up!"

Fitz was unsure, but because he didn't want to end up in the lab alone, and her enthusiasm was contagious he went right to practice for the field assessment, and to the field assessment itself with her.

It was after the field assessment that they both trudge, sweaty, exhausted, and with an overwhelming sense of failure, into his room. Jemma merely collapses on his bed, but Fitz goes to the mini-fridge he'd built to grab what he'd made as a post-test celebratory treat.

"What do you want to watch?" his partner asks, as she pulls Netflix up on his laptop.

"How about Doctor-"

"No, I don't feel like watching it today, we've watched it so much lately." she interrupts. She got touchy when she was tired, so he decides not to push her, even though he feels as though he deserves to watch his choice of show since it was _her_ fault in the first place that they had to take the bloody test.

"Fine, what do _you_ want to watch then?"

She goes silent for a moment, and he assumes she's scrolling through the choices, "How about Sherlo-"

"NO." he practically yells, "We've seen all of those like eight times and they're _so _long."

She huffs a sigh of annoyance, but doesn't press for her show either. There's another moment of silence as she looks for something they can both agree on, and he prepares the treat.

"Have you ever watched Supernatural?" she asks finally

"I haven't, but Ronny was telling me the other day that she loves it."

Jemma nods, "I've heard that it's good as well."

"Supernatural it is then."

He grabs the two bowls he's made and takes a seat next to her. Once the laptop is balancing on their legs she starts playing the first episode. He hands her a bowl as the episode begins.

"What is this?"

"Pudding." his reply is somewhat muddled by the bite he'd taken.

"What kind of pudding?"  
He rolls his eyes, "Just try it you'll like it. Now shh, I can't hear it."

The silence lasts long enough for them to see the two on screen children's mother burst into flames, "This is really good, but seriously what is it made of?"

Fitz thinks about not answering, as he's invested in the episode now, but does because he knows she won't stop bothering him otherwise, "It's persimmons pudding."

"No seriously Fitz, what's it made of."

"I told you! It's persimmons pudding!" he crosses his finger over his heart, "I swear I'm not lying."

Jemma doesn't speak for a moment, and he realizes, by the slight shake of her shoulders next to his, that she's laughing, "So you finally got tired of eating plain persimmons all the time and decided to spice it up?"

Ever since that first persimmons at lunch, he'd gotten them every time he could, which was, surprisingly, quite often. She was right in guessing that he'd wanted to change it for once. He'd gotten tired of the same-old same-old, and therefore had decided, while keeping with the theme of persimmons, to actually _make _something for once.

"Exactly right, I did want to spice it up… literally. There are a _lot _of spices in this pudding."

They finish the pudding as they watch Supernatural late into the night, making it halfway through season one before they end up falling asleep. Because they're so exhausted they don't even care when they find out the next day that they failed their field assessments. Neither does Agent Coulson


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone! I'm so so so so sorry that I haven't updated until now, life has been super hectic but now most of that stuff is done so I should be able to (hopefully) upload the last two chapters within weeks of eachother as originally promised **

**This chapter is supposed to take place after episode 1x06 "FZZT" which was the episode that made me change from "oh they're such sweet friends and it'd be kinda cute if they were together, I could maybe ship it" to "OMG I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP" so obviously it was impact to my view on these two and therefore it gets a chapter (: **

**Thanks to all of you who've been reading, you are all amazing beautiful tropical fishes. **

**Again I sadly do not own any of these characters **

**Reviews are love and will get you a virtual persimmon ;)**

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It's a week after Simmons almost died. Exactly seven days after what Fitz would forever consider the worst hours of his life. She's still shaken, he can tell by the way she jumps every time a piece of equipment zaps, and flinches if she, or anyone else, gets shocked.

He wants to put her at ease, but he's not sure how. Both of them knew that signing up for fieldwork was dangerous, but even after they tried apprehending Mike Petersen and blew a hole in the Bus, neither had danced so close to death until now. It was a life changing experience and they're both still unsure of how to react, so they don't.

They go about life as they did before, working side-by-side in the lab, hardly talking because they know each other so well. Sometimes Fitz makes jokes that she shakes her head at disapprovingly, but thinks are funny just this same. Life seems normal.

It isn't.

He can't pretend that he doesn't see the dark bags under her eyes that mean she is getting the exact same amount of sleep he is (none). He can't fake that he doesn't know why she's not getting sleep. It's the same reason he isn't; every time he closes his eyes he sees her fall out of that plane, except with worse results. Every night he wakes up screaming her name, and he can't shake the dreams. He can tell it's the same for her.

As he watches her day-by-day, he tries to think of a way to take her mind off of it, at least for a little while. His ideas are countless, but none of them are plausible (there's no way that he can get them a Tardis or arrange a meeting with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Albert Einstein) and if they are, they wouldn't help much. That is until, on that seventh day, he sees her carefully picking the peel off of an orange while they silently eat lunch together.

He smiles delightedly as the idea hits him. Immediately he jumps up and sprints to Coulson's office, ignoring Jemma's confused voice calling after him, "Fitz? What in the world…?"

"Sir!" he gasps when he bursts into Coulson's office. Agent Coulson swiftly mutes the screen on his wall, which he's using to talk to someone. Fitz barely registers Agents Barton and Romanoff on the screen, looking confused as well as amused. If he hadn't been so mentally preoccupied he would have fangirled over Strike-Team Delta. As it was, however, he didn't realize until later and would convey his disappointment to his partner in the months following.

"Fitz this is- " Coulson begins scolding him, but Fitz is too excited to listen.

"Sir, this is very important." he pants. Coulson looks at him attentively, no doubt expecting news of a scientific breakthrough or random calamity. Once he's absolutely sure he has his superior's undivided attention he continues, "How fast can you get us to Georgia?"

Merely five hours later they have gone to Georgia, Fitz has collected what he needed, and they're back in the air. Two hours after that he exits the small kitchen in the back of the Bus wearing a frilly apron and a broad smile, holding a steaming, orange-colored pie in gloved hands.

Fitz makes his way to his and Jemma's lab as quickly as he can without dropping the newly made pastry on the floor. Even though it's late, Jemma is sitting at one of the tables, feverishly writing down whatever findings she's getting from a microscope. There's a slight popping sound when he accidentally bumps a table and causes an instrument on it to emit sparks. At the sound Jemma jumps terribly, reinforcing why Fitz made the pie in the first place.

"Where have you _been_?" she asks him, obviously irritated by his absence, "I thought we were going to work on the DWARF drones today, but apparently not, since you decided to disappear on me."

"I-I well, I thought… I mean I wanted to…" Fitz is so taken aback by her anger that he can't string words together coherently, "I… I baked you a pie." he sheepishly holds up the object in question.

"Why." it's a statement rather than a question.

"because I thought you might like it…?" he tries, not wanting to tell her the real reason.

She gives him a long measuring look before sighing, "Fine, cut me a piece, I'm starving."

Fitz grins at her before setting the pie on his desk and using the knife he'd stored in his apron to cut her a large piece of his creation. She hands him a plate that she took from a drawer in his desk and he carefully places the slice on it.

"Thank you." she says, picking up the plate. He hands her a fork that he had also put in his apron, and watches eagerly as she takes a bite. Her eyebrows raise in surprise as she chews, and he can't tell whether it's a good or bad surprised.

"Well?"

She blinks a couple of times as she swallows, "That was… unexpected. I thought it would be pumpkin. What is it?"

He simply smiles, "Guess."

She thinks for a moment, looking utterly confused. Realization finally dawns on her and she looks ready to slap herself in the forehead because the answer is so obvious, "It's a persimmons pie, isn't it."

"Yep."

"Oh, silly Fitz." she mutters shaking her head, "It's really good, thank you."

For a moment he sees that the shadow of her ordeal has lifted. For a moment she's smiling with her eyes again. For a moment she doesn't look haunted. The effect of the persimmons pie doesn't last for more than a day, but it begins the recovery process far better than anything else had.


End file.
